“The history of the Caribbean is the history of the exploitation of labour” - with reference to slavery and the Encomienda labour system”
In the above statement “the history of the Caribbean is the history of the exploitation of labour,” it simply states that the Caribbean’s history is basically the history of its exploitation of labour. The definitions of keywords exploitation and labour must be considered. Exploitation can be defined as the practice of taking selfish or unfair advantage of a person or situation, usually for personal gain, while labour is defined as work done using the effort and strength of the body. With the definitions obtained, it can now be stated that the history of the Caribbean is the history of the various
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However, due to this, Spanish men were killed and forced to move due to the fact that the native peoples created warfare because of their ill treatment and also of the ways in which the native women were taken advantage of.
Another labour system that is referred to with the exploitation of labour in the Caribbean is slavery. The demand for slaves to cultivate sugarcane and other crops caused what came to be known as the triangle trade. This is when ships left Europe, stopped in Africa for trading then traveled to America where slaves were traded for sugar, rum, salt etc and then returned to Europe to begin trading again.Once they, the Africans, aboard the ships then they realized that they were being sent far away from home. Because of this they jumped overboard into the sea, choosing to drown or to be eaten by sharks rather than to be taken away from their homeland.
However, those who survived on the ship faced more abuses on the plantation where they were captured as slaves. Families were split up and the Africans were not allowed to learn to read or to write. African men, women and children were forced to work with the little that they had to eat or drink. Soon after the African slave population began to outnumber the Europeans and the native peoples because of the triangle trade. The planters lived in a state of terror about the possibility of a rebellion and where cruel in their suppression of the slaves. This then went further than just
The Spaniards treated the natives as slaves and attempted to erase their culture and family allegiances. They demanded more work from the Indians by enslaving them. They suppressed the natives and threatened them by trying to stamp out traditional Indian religious practices. After being treated so badly by the Spanish, in 1680 the Indians revolted and killed many Spaniards, cut the
In a unique approach author David Galenson examines the transition of servants to slaves during the 17th and 18th century of British America. He successfully covers the importance of slavery and the reason for its high demand. Galenson takes into consideration the demographic conditions and its differences throughout the West Indies,
When settlers realized that harvesting crops and doing other chores went by much faster with slaves, there was a dramatic increase in slave labor in British North America. In the 1700s, the triangle trade was established, greatly increasing the number of African slaves shipped to British North America. In the Triangle Trade, British North Americans shipped out goods to the West Indies and Britain in return for slaves and other resources. While trans-Atlantic
Slavery represents an important part of Jamaican history and the cultivated dominant atmosphere. For one, plantations highly depended on slave labor to maximize profit margins. Between 1655 and 1808 one million slaves were forcefully brought to Jamaica (Waters, 1985: 21-23). Persaud (2001: 72) suggests, “the plantation system, the totality of institutional arrangements surrounding the production and marketing of plantation crops, has seriously affected society in Jamaica”. In other words, the slave mode of production was a crucial factor in the establishment of Jamaica’s structural society. “Jamaica’s class structure today reflects its history as a colonial plantation society and its beginnings of industrial development
Capitalism was the sole purpose for being the cause of an exponential use of slaves in all aspects of production. Notably, it involved an economic system whose basis originates from private ownership of all the means of production as well as the production of goods and services majorly meant for profit. With characteristics such as accumulation of capital, labor, private property ownership, and competitive market. Therefore, there was a great need for means of production hence slavery. However, there is a close relationship between free and slave labor as used in production. The paper uses “Capitalism and Slavery” (William, 1961) as a primary source material to compare the profitability of free labor and slave labor through an in-depth discussion of the role the African slavery played in the development of capitalism in the New World. Free labor and slave labor both have profits in the production process and would be applied differently at various places. For instance, slave labor was profitable in activities in which little skills and versatility in production process were required. It is worth noting that, the use of slave labor to cultivate a fresh soil is more profitable than the use of free men in the cultivation of an exhausted land. However, the use of slave labor was the option at the earlier stages of development of colonies, although slaved labor was unskillful, given reluctantly, and lacks versatility (Eltis, 2000). Moreover, use of slave labor were not moral but
They didn’t need that many slaves because they didn’t grow sugar cane and the slaves that worked on sugar cane plantations were overworked. The difference between British North America and the Caribbean’s is that in the Caribbean’s they tended to overwork their slaves, which in turn made their death rate increase. But in British North America they didn’t want to overwork their salves because if they did there wouldn’t be as many women having as many children; the more children they had the grater the slave population and a lower death rate.
The development of slavery in the Americas, Caribbean, and Africa had profound effects and influenced the economy as well as the social structures of each geographic location.
This paper will focus on how slave revolts in the Caribbean and America have affected these countries and the aftermath they caused to their mother countries which greatly impacted the outcome for people of African American descent. Since the very beginning of time mankind has been enslaving one another for centuries. In American around the time the Civil War the south justified slavery by saying that slaves were needed for industrial help such as the industry of cotton picking, they also
Throughout the development and colonization of America, there were a lot of changes that affected Native American, Africans, and women. Within this paper, I will attempt to provide some insight and bring to light some of the changes and how they affected the folks involved. As the New World grew and colonized the rights of all were not equal or fair. Native Americans were focused on their homes to provide the New World. While Africans were kidnapped and focused into slave labor to provide economic growth for the New World. During this time women were always seen as a lower class citizen, not allowed any say in the way the colony was governed or grew. All of these minorities fought from the beginning of
"Capitalism & Slavery," (published by The University of North Carolina Press, 1994) was written by Eric Eustace Williams and first published in 1944. Eric Williams' book, was at the time of its publication, considered years ahead of its time. It should be noted, early on within this report that, literary works on the history of the Caribbean or slavery for a matter of fact, was done by Europeans. In the preface of his book, Williams clearly asserts that his work, "is not a study of the institution of slavery but of the contribution of slavery to the development of British capitalism."1 His work takes an economic view of history, which is at the
The cause and effects of the Haitian Revolution have played, and continue to play, a major role in the history of the Caribbean. During the time of this rebellion, slavery was a large institution throughout the Caribbean. The success of the sugar and other plantations was based on the large slave labor forces. Without these forces, Saint Domingue, the island with the largest sugar production, and the rest of the Caribbean, would face the threat of losing a profitable industry.
Superficially, The History of Mary Prince documents slavery in the West Indies, adding richly to historical memory of the time period through its firsthand account. At the time of its publication, the genre of the slave narrative was just appearing. The History of Mary Prince, along with other formative texts, shape an important bank of evidence and allow current historians to remember and study slavery in the West Indies with a shred of credibility. Without these texts, the unimaginable pain endured by those brought into the Atlantic slave
Since the arrival of Europeans the Caribbean islands have been going through constant change. The loss of native peoples and the introduction of the plantation system had immediate and permanent reprocussions on the islands. The Plantation system set up a society which consisted of a large, captive lower class and a powerful, wealthy upper class. As the plantation systems became successful labor was needed in order to progress. Slavery became the answer to the problem. Slavery played an important role in the how the economy changed the islands because there was a
result, the Spanish lost a great deal of their labor force. The Spanish looked for another way to
“To what extent can it be argued that genocide and revolution are central themes in Caribbean History?”